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Focus on women and child abuse

[Swaziland] Young girls like Nomsa [not her real name] have suffered abuse. IRIN
Young girls needed to be more assertive
Activists in Swaziland have been working hard to expose the fallacy that mistreatment of women and children is sanctioned by Swazi tradition. Challenging traditionalists who have hidden behind notions of "custom", the message has now reached isolated pockets of the country such as the northern Hhohho region. On Monday the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) launched a regional centre there "to spread the word that mistreatment of women and children is not sanctioned by Swazi custom, and it is certainly against the law," Nonhlanhla Dlamini, president of SWAGAA, told IRIN. The multi-pronged attack on sexual and physical abuse also saw the distribution of English and SiSwati booklets, published by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), along with literature advising abuse survivors on how to report such crimes and where to receive treatment. The high mountains and narrow canyons of Hhohho - now being targeted by government for highway and other electrical infrastructure improvement after decades of neglect - have isolated it from the rest of Swaziland. Its residents have resisted modern ways and current notions about gender rights. Last year, it was Hhohho - where up to 70 percent of small landholder farms illegally cultivate marijuana to be sold in South Africa and the Netherlands - which spawned the sensational court case of rapist Jasper Nxumalo. Nxumalo defended himself against charges of raping his nine year-old daughter by saying the Bible sanctioned his "family's tradition" of the headman bedding a daughter to achieve a male heir. "My father did the same, my grandfather did it, and my great grandfather did it, too," Nxumalo told the Mbabane Court of Appeal. His daughter, whom he abused for four years, eventually fell pregnant, and gave birth at age 13. In his defence, Nxumalo quoted Biblical verses such as: "If she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not." His defence did not succeed. SWAGAA was pleased with Nxumalo's conviction and nine-year jail sentence, and used the case to put to rest notions that incest was a Swazi custom. "When we first heard about this 'custom' we did extensive research, including focus groups with traditionalists and elders. We found no evidence that incest was ever tolerated in Swazi society," said Dlamini. Nor was child or spousal abuse tolerated in the past, when Swazis lived on sprawling multi-generational polygamous farms, from which an abused or disrespected wife could depart for her parental homestead. A palaver between families was called to address marital difficulties, and if unresolved, a separation of wife or child from husband or abusive father was arranged. "The breakdown of the traditional family, and with it the social safety net it provided, has exacerbated the problem of abuse, because about all that remains from the old system is the legal minority status of women," said abuse counsellor Sindile Mcanyana. The traditional homestead's economy depended on all family members, which tended to empower women and even children. Today, a wage-earning father has supplanted the communal system, giving the husband/father more power. But this also puts pressure on the man as the sole provider, and can lead to family strife when he is unable to provide. "We saw an upswing of abuse cases when Swazi miners were retrenched from their jobs in South Africa," Khosi Mtetwa, former president of SWAGAA, told IRIN. Under her tenure, the organisation began offering counselling, medical referral and legal advice to abuse survivors. For a century, the northern Hhohho region sent miners to South Africa. But a downturn in the mining industry sent many of them home to unemployment. IRIN spoke to 16-year-old Nomsa (not her real name) at Jacaranda House, a halfway house for abused or at-risk girls in the commercial capital, Manzini. Her ex-miner father raped and impregnated her after losing his job outside Johannesburg, South Africa. "He was angry all the time when he returned home. My mother left him, but he would not let me leave. He beat me because he wanted to have sex with me," she said. Nomsa was threatened with death by her father if she revealed his rape of her. But a hospital nurse, examining her after a beating, detected signs of sexual abuse and summoned police. "Death threats are one reason these crimes go unreported," said Mcanyana. "We have spent time educating the police, and they now take these crimes seriously." Swaziland's lawmakers and courts are also getting tough on abusers. Rape is a non-bailable offence. The Swaziland Law Society objects to non-bailable clauses on the principal that they rob judges of their discretionary rights in cases, but the law is popular in this conservative country. Sex education is not taught in schools, and the Family Life Association, UNICEF, SWAGAA and other reproductive rights and gender and children's rights NGOs have taken up the slack. On the surface, statistics about abuse crimes are alarming, rising 50 percent last year over the year before. But abuse counsellors feel this rise does not represent a sudden proliferation of abuse crimes, but rather an increase in the reporting of these crimes. "Swazis do love their children, and there is the same repugnance against child molestation and abuse of women that you find elsewhere," one counsellor told IRIN. "The main problem is overcoming fear – fear of reporting, of even seeking medical assistance because you'll draw attention to yourself. It's the Swazi way, not to make waves, particularly if your father or husband is involved. We're getting over that. We're saving lives."

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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